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BULLETIN 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

1916: No. 40 



B354-1116-lm 



JULY 15 



1916 



STUDY OUTLINES OF EIIZABETH HARRISON'S "CHILD NATURE" 



By L. W. Sackett, Ph. D. 

Adjunct Professor of the Psychology of Education in 
The University of Texas 

Prepared at the Request, and with the Co-operation, of the Texas 

Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations for 

Use by Parent-Teacher Associations and Others 

Desiring to Study Childliood. 




Published by the University six times a month and entered as 
second-class matter at the postofflce at 
AUSTIN, TEXAS 



/ 



The benefits of education and of 
useful knowledge, generally diffused 
through a community, are essential 
to the preservation of a free govern- 
ment. 

Sam Houston. 

Cultivated mind is the guardian 
genius of democracy. . . . It is 
the only dictator that freemen ac- 
knowledge and the only security that 
freemen desire. 

President Mirabeau B. Lamar. 

The schoolhouses dotted here and 
there and everywhere over the great 
expanse of this nation will some day 
prove to be the roots of that great 
tree of liberty which will spread for 
the sustenance and protection of all 
mankind. 

Woodrow Wilson. 



D. of D. 
AUG 22 1917 



** 



") 



STUDY OUTLINES OF ELIZABETH HARRISON'S 
"CHILD NATURE" 1 

By L. W. Sackett, Ph. D. 

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EDUCATION IN THE 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

INTRODUCTION 

In any organization or proposed organization of parents and 
teachers there is always the problem of how best to keep up 
interest after the first burst of enthusiasm has spent its force. 
In the beginning everyone is rich in suggestions and especially 
ready to entertain propositions from others but as the novelty 
of the situation wears away the routine of work becomes a drag 
and unless some contribution is made to render each meeting 
distinct in itself there is a mental depression and a loss of 
interest. When this occurs, one may be sure that decadence 
has set in and that the end is not far, unless something occurs 
to bring about a rejuvenation. Churches on such occasions 
indulge in revivals, musical or literary societies import expen- 
sive outside talent, political parties must lead out a dark horse 
or uncover some new mystery as a rallying cry for renewed 
activity. Parent-teacher associations will be no exception to 
this general rule. The necessity for this, however, is rendered 
less urgent when each member at every meeting attempts to 
take some active part and make some real contribution. Nothing- 
adds so much to one's estimate of the value of a meeting as 
to have some part in it herself. "What she says or does may have 
great or little value when viewed in the abstract but its reflex 
value to herself is inestimable. It is the very life-blood of her 
relationship with the organization. The committee on arrange- 
ments must seek out some contribution that the backward mem- 
bers can make. It may be that some modest little mother at the 
edge of the community has learned a great deal about teaching 
children obedience. She, of course, thinks she can't "make a 
speech," but no pains should be spared to induce her to tell the 
body what her experience has taught her. What to her seems 



^'Study of Child N» + ure" by Elizabeth Harrison, Chicago Kindergar- 
ten Collere. rrice $1.00. 



•1 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

common-place and uninteresting due to her too close contact, will 
prove enlightening- and inspiring to others. It is just, such re- 
ports rich from life's experiences that will lend dignity and sig- 
nificance to the meetings. It is with a view to stimulating this 
interest and inspired participation that ths text was chosen and 
the following outline of "lessons" has been arranged. Much of 
its success or failure depends upon the spirit or purpose in which 
it is pursued. 

The suggestions at the end of each lesson are intended to stim- 
ulate observation. One must have the laboratory attitude to- 
wards the child and must be willing to estimate facts and ex- 
periences at their true value. It is hoped that through these 
suggestions the habit of observing intelligently the conduct of 
children will be fostered. Such an attitude is at the foundation 
of all understanding and proper guidance of children. Many 
people will walk blindly past a better-baby exhibit with all 
evidences of being bored with the proceedings, but will stand 
admiringly before a swine pen. The reason is, that they have 
the ability and the habit of observation more highly cultivated 
for swine than they have for babies. Different training would 
induce different attitudes towards the situations. Let the leader 
call for a report of the experiences or observations of the past 
month, and above all let the members be diligent in their efforts 
to improve their keenness of observation and willingness in 
bringing reports to the meeting. The last thing in every meet- 
ing should be the assignments of the general topics for tbe 
next meeting to some three or four to prepare specially upon, 
and the explanation of the suggestions following the day's work 
with an admonition that all carry out at least some of the sug- 
gestions. All will thus develop this inquiring attitude toward 
children and especially toward their own children. 

Final Counsel of Great Weight 
Every mother should keep a life book for each child in which 
she records the important facts concerning the child. Of course, 
the mother is tired at the close of the day and very naturally 
she has not the habit of keeping a diary, but the value of such 
a record will grow as the years go by and, moreover, will vastly 
increase the definiteness of the work of this course. 



LESSON I 
Spontaneous Activity and Its Guidance 

1. What is the relation between restlessness and physical 
growth? Pp. 13-14. 

2. Describe the finger games. Why do they appeal so strongly 
to children ? Give other games or devices of this character. Pp. 
14-19. 

3. What are the effects of parental guidance of activity into 
desirable lines as compared with efforts at the repression of 
undesirable actions? Pp. 19-29. 

4. What are the changes of disposition which come with 
pubesence and early adolescence? Suggest ways of directing or 
correcting some of these tendencies. Give concrete experiences. 
Pp. 29-31. 

5. Why should mothers study the line of thought which most 
attracts their children ? Pp. 31-32. 

6. "The real inner disposition of the child is neither moral 
nor immoral, but unmoral. It is made moral or immoral by 
cur attitude towards it in the beginning of its unfoldment." 
Is the foregoing true? If true, what practical bearing has it 
for parents and primary teachers? 

Suggestions for following month: 

a. Take a note-book and keep a list of the things your children 
do next week which seems to be spontaneous or not connected 
with anything they have been taught to do. How do you ac- 
count for them doing it? 

b. Find examples of a child's activity which seems to be 
motivated more from an inner impulse or desire than from some- 
thing which has just happened to cause him to think or do the 
thing. 

c. Try the experiments of (a) repressing a child's impulses 
without suggesting a new line of action; (b) repressing and 
immediately suggesting some substitute; (c) suggesting a sub- 
stitute without reference to what the child is at that time doing 
or wanting to do. 



LESSON II 

Sense Training 

1. Summarize what was said in the last lesson concerning 
the spontaneous behavior of children and how our attitude af- 
fects it. 

2. What are the three chief types of advantages to come from 
sense training? Can you name any particular benefit of im- 
portance which would not come under these headings? P. 33. 

3. Show how our own pleasure is limited by our failure to 
perceive what is about us ? 

4. Show how the habit of observation may be developed out 
of a habit of contrasting. How may this be overemphasized? 

5. How may the morals of a child be affected by training 
and practice in sense accuity. P. 37. 

6. Show how the gratification of the senses is the most uni- 
versal and dominating force of life. Pp. 39-44. 

7. What is the "Tasting Song" and how is it employed? 
What will be the chief difficulties in using it? Pp. 49-54. 

8. Discuss the habits of parents in using confectioneries as 
bribes, associating a child's sickness with what he has eaten, etc. 

9. How should music, especially singing, be used in teaching 
children to consider others? How will this affect the child's 
own appreciation of music? Pp. 56-57. 

10. "Let them alone 

And they'll come home, 
Wagging their tails behind them." 

How would the lesson in this nursery rhyme apply to the matter 

of training of the senses? 

Suggestions for following month: 

a. Report cases wherein a child's tendency to see parts of 
things rather than to see it as a whole is responsible for his 
destructive tendencies. 

b. Try out the "Tasting Song" as a game and make note 
in your record book of the results with each child engaged. 

c. By directing a child to act out some song or instrumental 
music see if you can develop any of the enthusiasm for music 
which he manifests for the "funny page" of the Sunday paper. 



LESSON III 
Emotions and Affections 

1. Summarize what was said in last lesson on training the 
senses. Show how extreme emphasis upon sense training may 
lead to a wrong attitude in education and in life. Pp. 62-64. 

2. Show how the peculiarities of various peoples are expressed 
in their toys. Pp. 65-70. 

3. To what extent has the selection of toys for your children 
determined their characteristics? 

4. How may we avoid wrong standards in selecting toys for 
children? Pp. 70-74. 

5. State the several purposes that toys should serve. If this 
is true, then what advantages have a few simple, inexpensive 
dolls over a large number of fine dolls with great variety of 
dresses and equipment? 

6. Show how play activity with toys is a training of the 
emotions along with the senses. 

7. Show how selfishness is developed in children by th ir 
parents encouraging certain types of plays and playthings. Show 
how unselfishness may be developed through plays and play- 
things. Pp. 75-78. 

8. The child's love for mother is more a matter of training 
than of teaching. How may this training be brought about? 
Pp. 78-79. 

9. "What person did you as a child love most, and why did 
you love this person? "What does this show about child nature 
and about the best method of securing the love and confidence 
of children in such a way that you may guide them and mold 

their character? 

* 

Suggestions for following month: 

a. Get two toys for a child. Give one to him as a mark 
of your own love for him and your desire to please him. Some 
time later, have him desire the other toy and earn it by his re- 
spect and affection for you. (Note the differences in your record 
book.) 



8 Bulletin of tlie University of Texas 

b. Keep detailed record for at least one week of the character 
of emotions you appeal to in governing your children. How 
many times do you appeal negatively to fear and how many 
times positively to respect? Which do you find most effective 
immediately? "Which produces the most desirable habits in the 
child? 

c. Take pieces of ribbon similar sizes and shapes but of 
different colors and intensities. Place all on a table so that 
they are equally accessible. Let the child choose the one he 
thinks prettiest. Aid him to choose the two which go together. 
(Note the age and sex differences and the difficulties you ex- 
perienced.) 



LESSON IV 

Development of Reason 

1. Summarize the thoughts with regard to education through 
play or playthings that were brought out at the last lesson. 

2. Show how the beginnings of reason and of higher thought 
are found in nursery stories. Pp. 90-93. 

3. Many stories begin with such expressions as : "Once upon 
a time," "A long time ago," ''On the other side of the hill," 
"At the end of the rainbow," "At the end of the road." What 
is the effect of these expressions upon the child? Pp. 93-95. 

4. "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he 
is old he will not depart from it." Can you explain the appar- 
ent exceptions to this? 

5. How do kindergarten activities of drawing, sewing, build- 
ing, etc., develop the reasoning power? Pp. 99-101. 

6. The sense of continuity helps the child to explain suffer- 
ing, fits of temper, etc. What would be the effect if this were 
over-emphasized? P. 103. 

7. What should guide the mother in selecting reading matter? 
P. 105. 

8. What science may be taught the child and how may it be 
presented? Pp. 105-108. 

9. How may a mother best prepare her child to meet all con- 
ditions in life? Pp. 110-113. 

10. What things do teachers do that cause children to quit 
using their reason to some extent and depend instead upon their 
memory? What things do parents do that cause children not 
to trust their own powers of reason and not try to use this 
power ? 

11. How may the school and the home co-operate in develop- 
ing the capacity for reasoning in the minds of the children from 
earliest infancy? 

Suggestions for following month: 

a. Try for a time letting your child do whatever he wants 
to do, provided he can give a good reason for doing it. Just 



10 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

because he wants to may be appetite, passion, or habit. See 
that he offers a valid reason. "What are the effects of this upon 
the child's general attitude toward his surroundings? 

b. Observe yourself to see if your child is required to act 
from blind obedience or from an appreciation of the justice 
of your commands or requests. Distinguish between your appre- 
ciation of the reason and his appreciation of the reason. 

c. Make a list of the punishments you have inflicted wherein 
the trouble was with the child having no reason for his act rather 
than with his having a wrong motive. Was the punishment 
justified? 



LESSON V 
Justice and Punishments 

1. Summarize what was learned at the last lesson about the 
ways in which our children's capacity to reason is injured or is 
developed by us. 

2. Tell the story to show what the true office of punishment 
is and how it should be administered. Pp. 113-118. 

3. To what extent should the child be allowed to suffer the 
consequence of his own misdeeds? Pp. 118-122. 

4. Does the mother or the teacher have better opportunities 
to teach justice and injustice ? How does Miss Harrison suggest 
that this be done ? Is her view correct ? How have you yourself 
done it? Pp. 122-126. 

5. What are the effects of placing too great temptation before 
a child? Pp. 127-130. 

6. What are the effects of using bribes and rewards to secure 
good conduct ? Illustrate some ways in which this is done. How 
may good conduct be properly rewarded without doing harm 
to the child? Pp. 128-130. 

7. Is it ever proper to arbitrarily compel the child to do a 
thing in order to break his will? Pp. 130-131. 

8. Should a parent never punish a child while either it or 
the parent is angry? Why? 

9. How may we give the child our exalted view of life? 

10. What are the objections to the use of corporeal punish- 
ment at home? What at school? 

11. What other punishments are more effective: (a) in pre- 
venting misbehavior; (b) in developing character? 

Suggestions for following month: 

a. Arrange the following list of offenses in the order of 
their seriousness as you have been considering them in your 
past attitude towards children : 

To answer father or mother disrespectfully. 

To damage or destroy public property. 

To promise one's parents not to go in swimming and then to 
slip off and go. 



12 Bulletin of tlie University of Texas 

To stay out late at night without one's parents' consent. 

To steal peaches out of a neighbor's orchard. 

To pretend to go to church or Sunday school, but instead to 
go fishing with some "chums." 

To associate with immoral boys and girls. 

To run away from home, knowing that it will cause one's 
parents great distress. 

To tease, punish, or kill cats and dogs cruelly. 

To swear. 

To break a dish and hide the pieces. 

To tattle on some boy. 

To tell dirty or vulgar stories. 

To neglect a younger brother who might be in danger if 
left alone. 

To tell a wicked lie about some other boy or girl. 

b. Indicate the age at which you think a child becomes suffi- 
ciently responsible to appreciate the justice of punishment for 
the above offenses. 

c. Suppose your child is one year older than the minimum 
age of responsibility as you have indicated above. Now what 
kind of punishment do you think a child should have who 
commits one of these? 



LESSON VI 

Training the Will 

1. Summarize what was learned at the last meeting 1 about 
punishments and rewards. 

2. How does the sense of "ought" and "must" arise? Pp. 
136-139. 

3. How does voluntary obedience differ from other types of 
obedience? Pp. 139-141. 

4. Illustrate from personal experience the use of the alterna- 
tive situations as a means of punishment. Pp. 141-143. 

5. What are the signs which indicate that the child has come 
to the point at which his individuality must be recognized? Pp. 
143-145. 

6. What ought parent and teacher do when it is seen that 
the sense of personal power and personal responsibility in the 
child lead it to want to choose its own line of work in life? 
What is the effect of ignoring the child's awakening sense of 
power and desire to guide his own actions? Does a child de- 
velop his will power by exercising it or by submitting his will 
to that of another ? 

7. How may we avoid the overdevelopment of individuality 
into self-consciousness and vanity? Pp. 146-151. 

8. How can the special days observed in school serve to give 
expression to hero-worship ? 

9. Tell the story of the Five Knights and illustrate how it 
develops hero characteristics in the child. 

10. Show how co-operation and "community" approval will 
break down the child's obstinacy. Pp. 152-156. 

11. How important is it for the parent or tea. "her to care- 
fully leave open to the child a way of reconciliation towards 
which he may strive? Can you give a concrete case showing- 
how this w T as done and another in which it was not done? 

12. By drawing illustrations from the boyhood lives of great 
men, show how what is considered obstinacy in children often 



14 Bulletin of the University of Texas 

develops into adult characteristics which make these men famous. 

Suggestions for following month: 

a. Keep a record in double entry of the things you do with 
children which seem to strengthen and those which seem to 
weaken their will power. Bring that to the meeting and compart- 
it with records made by others. 

b. Note and report instances either with your own or other 
children under your observation wherein weak wills seem to be 
due to a weakened, untoned, or undeveloped muscular system 
What have you done or seen attempted, or what would you 
recommend in such instances? 

c. An educator recently advanced the doctrine that tempta- 
tion and struggle are indication of disease of will rather than 
the manifestations of strong will power. Is that the general 
sentiment of your community? Or, do they admire most the 
one who stumbles and almost falls but manages to keep himself 
straight? 



LESSON VII 
Religious Training 

1. Review what was learned at the last meeting about the 
training of the will. 

2. To what extent does the outward activity of a child mark 
his inner spiritual life? P. 164. 

3. What, according to the author, is the significance of the 
hand as a mark of character and disposition ? Could training in 
open-handed games develop a spirit of frankness in the child? 
Pp. 165-169. 

4. What is the relation between an "expanded chest" and 
inner soul conditions? What is the danger of misinterpreting? 
Pp. 171-174. 

5. What are the effects of assumed bodily positions upon 
spiritual life and character? Pp. 174-176. 

6. What forms of activity in the home, school, or church life 
of the child do you think are artificial and not well adapted to 
the development of the right inner response in children? Pp. 
176-178. 

7. How does the inner religious life first begin to show itself? 
How are these first manifestations affected by the mother's and 
teacher's attitude towards them? P. 180. 

8. How may compulsory attendance at church and Sunday 
school work great harm ? How may attendance be secured with- 
out working harm, when the child does not desire to go? 

Suggestions for following month: 

a. Have a frank, heart to heart talk with some ten year old 
boy (or girl) with a view of finding what he in his innermost 
soul likes and what he dislikes about church and Sunday school. 
Extreme caution is necessary or the child will not be frank and 
will consider you as a religious aclmonisher who slipped in upon 
him by the back door. Really try to get the child's point of 
view. It will be not only refreshing but very illuminating. 

b. Are your children acquiring a religious habit which they 
put on and take off with their Sunday clothes or are they really 
securing an abiding- religious interest ? Look at the facts and try 
to answer. 

c. Try some of the Bible lessons in the story hour There 
are many good stories for this use. What is the difference be- 
tween this and the usual Sundav school class? 



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LESSON VIII 
Imitation and True Faith 

1. What general conclusions were reached at the last meeting 
about religious training? 

2. Show how imitation is the child's experimental laboratory 
in which he seeks to understand his environment. Pp. 183-187. 

3. Kindergarten pageant games serve what purpose in child 
life? Pp. 187-190. 

4. To what extent does this pageant acting become a perman- 
ent mark of character? Pp. 190-192. 

5. How may the child be given a true conception of invisible 
forces and how may this become a basis of faith in God? Pp 

'192-195. 

6. Recall stories of your own children's first attempts to ex- 
plain nature and to infer one thing from another. Pp. 195-197 

7. How may the child's random questions on things about 
him be used to develop reverence and an increased capacity for 
religion? Pp. 197-199. 

8. What is the danger of moralizing on every point? Would 
it be better to teach the child and allow the subtle force to work 
unconsciously with him? Pp. 200-203. 

9. General review. Let each one bring a list giving the one 
most helpful thought which she has got from each of the eight 
lessons. Also let the members give concrete cases in which they 
have successfully applied an idea learned in the course to the 
handling of their children. 

Suggestions for following gears: 

This supposedly completes the course and you are now ready 
for your commencement. The effort has been to stimulate ac- 
tion on your part throughout the course. If that has been suc- 
cessful, you are amply prepared to begin a line of work which 
will last you throughout your life, give you great pleasure and 
insure you rewards for your efforts. This would indeed be a 
grand and fitting commencement. Without it, our efforts have 
been in vain. With it, even in the case of one mother, the 
writer will feel that his efforts have been richly rewarded. 



Ho! 



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